Post: #1

There I was, standing in front of a bank in NY. My passport in hand and wondering what to do. Should I walk in and open an account?
Nah, i said to myself. Write your book first and I'm sure things will be easy to manage once back home.

I can punch my self in the face now. I have just received a my first royalty check of 280$ and wanted to cash it at my own bank. I preferred cash in hand of course so that I could pay my rent and keep the financial info away from the tax office and government.

It turns out I have to send the check to the main office and they will put the money in my bank account. Costs to do this are about 23 dollar.

F you Amazon. Why is it possible to pay the royalties from paperback books straight into my bank account and kindle book royalties are paid in checks?. What an ancient and time wasting system.

Long story short. I don't want to wait long and pay 23 dollar every month for the next years to come. It's gonna be costly over the years and I need to stay in Holland to keep cashing the checks this way (unless I ask my parents to forge my signature once a month).
Say that i'm selling this book for 5 years. that's 60 X 23 dollars = 1380 dollars. + 60 times to the postoffice, 60 times losing money in the exchange rates.
I might as well hop on a plane to the states just open an account and be cheaper of over the years.

So, the best way would be to open an account whilst not even going there.
Does anyway have any info how to do this? (I already have a US tax number)

Post: #2

They have told me whilst here that I cannot open a bank account. Maybe it is different with this tax number that you have.

Post: #3

I think Chase let's you take a picture of your check from a smartphone and upload and deposit it through their iPhone app.
Maybe your bank has something similar?

Post: #4

Sounds like you need a different bank in Holland, not in the US. What about ING?

Post: #5

(10-05-2012 09:31 AM)Menace Wrote:  Sounds like you need a different bank in Holland, not in the US. What about ING?

I opened a bank account in california while traveling there as a tourist. I showed my passport, 1500 dollars and voila. piece of cake. best decision ever for receiving US payments for freelacing IT jobs. (although it sucks for savings interest rates)

Post: #6

(10-05-2012 09:10 AM)Jalouse Wrote:  They have told me whilst here that I cannot open a bank account. Maybe it is different with this tax number that you have.

From what i learned on Dutch websites, it's possible whilst being in the US but it depends on the bank. You need two 2 ID's and a TIN (which i have) would surely help.

(10-05-2012 09:19 AM)Parlay44 Wrote:  I think Chase let's you take a picture of your check from a smartphone and upload and deposit it through their iPhone app.
Maybe your bank has something similar?

I wish. No one actually still uses checks in Holland. If there would be a system like this it would be surely for Dutch checks only)

(10-05-2012 09:31 AM)Menace Wrote:  Sounds like you need a different bank in Holland, not in the US. What about ING?

I have ING which is one of the worlds largest banks. If I would have a large business dollar account things would be different.
The problem is even worse than I thought. Cashing the check costs 12.30 + 7.50 postal costs = about 20 euro's per check. That's 26 dollars a check. I need to sell at least 4 kindle ebooks (at 70% royalty) a month just to coffer the costs. Not a problem if checks keep coming in for hundreds of dollars but eventually when the novelty wears of I would get checks of a 100 dollar which makes it a quarter of the costs.

I looked at online US brokers and banks and their service fees aren't exactly cheap either. 40$ for a international transaction renders a foreign bank account useless. Most banks ask a banking fee of 15$ a month if you don't have a 1500$ minimum.
This sucks.

The solution would have to come from Amazon. I imagine their a lots of writers overseas having the same problem.

Post: #7

Im pretty sure theres an online bank that lets you open a US bank account, i think i read it on warrior forum.

Try googling that Im sure there is away, unfortunately I cant remember the name of the bank.

Post: #8

I think I might have found a solution. It's called payoneer. http://www.payoneer.com Does anyone here use this system?

There's a thread about it on Kindleboards with Aussies having the same problem http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/to...549.0.html

Basically any kindle writer outside the US has this problem. I"m thinking of signing up but I need to find out more about the fees.

Amazon is a great company but has its flaws. This is one of them. Another one is that they don't really have lots of sales pages or ones I can publish on. There are sales pages for France,Italy and Spain for example but not for huge countries like Australia,Russia,Brazil.

Post: #9

open an online account (ing, hsbc, etc) but call customer service first to find out about the paperwork. problem is you might need a US address in addition to a SS number. good luck.

Post: #10

You may want to look at PayPal. They have a free service where you can take a picture of the check and they'll deposit it in yor account, plus you can register for PayPal in most developed countries. Then you can get a PayPal debit card (if available in your country) and either spend the money directly or transfer it to your preferred bank account.

Post: #11

(10-07-2012 01:06 PM)RenewalMan Wrote:  You may want to look at PayPal. They have a free service where you can take a picture of the check and they'll deposit it in yor account, plus you can register for PayPal in most developed countries. Then you can get a PayPal debit card (if available in your country) and either spend the money directly or transfer it to your preferred bank account.

This sounds good but I can't find anything about it on my paypal account.

I used the search button also. Where is this feature located?

Otherwise I have to go with Payoneer I guess. This might be the best to keep the Dutch Tax office out of it too.

Post: #12

I believe its a smartphone app. Here's a bit of information on it:
http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/05/18/...rag-about/
They have it for iPhone also.

Also here's the PayPal page whitch briefly mentions it:
https://www.paypal.com/webapps/helpcente...1867&m=SRE
Read: pay by check

Let me know if it works I've never actually used it myself.

Edit: just fully read that article, I guess it's only available in the US. Sorry about that.